Biography
The Coopers' music carried echoes of southern Appalachian traditions. Harvard University's music library bestowed upon Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and their Clinch Mountain Clan the designation of "the most authentic mountain singing group in the United States" in 1950.
Traditional country music seemed the destined path for Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper. Stoney, raised on a Clinch County, WV farm, mastered mountain music and Elizabethan ballads on fiddle during childhood. By age 12 he had self-taught guitar and entered the Green Valley Boys. Wilma Lee performed from early childhood with the Leary Family, a leading Southern gospel ensemble. Her first public appearance occurred at age five. She joined the Leary Family at a national folk festival backed by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1938.
Stoney first shared stages with Wilma Lee in the late 1930s after the Leary Family engaged him as fiddler at ten dollars weekly. Following their 1941 marriage the pair billed themselves as the Musical Partners yet continued traveling with the Learys. Upon departure they worked the Virginia and West Virginia circuit until the arrival of daughter Carol Lee prompted Stoney to accept employment with a beverage distributor. Early-1940s radio broadcasts frequently featured the couple across Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, and North Carolina. After relocating to Chicago, Stoney took a defense-plant position in Gary, IN.
Their professional ascent commenced upon return to West Virginia in 1947 and induction into The Wheeling Jamboree. For ten years they performed weekly Saturday nights on the CBS radio network. The year 1957 brought departure from the program, relocation to Nashville, and membership in the Grand Ole Opry. Two years afterward they issued "Come Walk with Me," the first of three Top Ten country singles. "There's a Big Wheel" and "Big Midnight Special" followed in the same year. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s the Coopers guested on multiple U.S. and Canadian television programs and appeared in the films Country Music on Broadway and W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings. They maintained Grand Ole Opry activity into the mid-1970s, when Stoney's declining health compelled retirement. Their final joint session produced Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper Sing the Carter Family's Greatest Hits.
Wilma Lee sustained an independent performing and recording career after Stoney's withdrawal; she had earlier earned a bachelor's degree in banking from Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV. Days before his 1977 passing she offered a Grand Ole Opry rendition of the Carter Family's "Little Darling Pal of Mine" in his honor. The Smithsonian Institute recognized her as "the first lady of bluegrass" during its 1974 folk festival. A stroke suffered onstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 2001 concluded her performing tenure, though she later returned as a non-performer to greet and thank audiences. Several Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper recordings, among them "Sunny Side of the Mountain," "The West Virginia Polka," "Thirty Pieces of Silver," "Wreck on the Highway," and "Legend of the Dogwood Tree," remain fixtures in country and bluegrass repertoires.
Traditional country music seemed the destined path for Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper. Stoney, raised on a Clinch County, WV farm, mastered mountain music and Elizabethan ballads on fiddle during childhood. By age 12 he had self-taught guitar and entered the Green Valley Boys. Wilma Lee performed from early childhood with the Leary Family, a leading Southern gospel ensemble. Her first public appearance occurred at age five. She joined the Leary Family at a national folk festival backed by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1938.
Stoney first shared stages with Wilma Lee in the late 1930s after the Leary Family engaged him as fiddler at ten dollars weekly. Following their 1941 marriage the pair billed themselves as the Musical Partners yet continued traveling with the Learys. Upon departure they worked the Virginia and West Virginia circuit until the arrival of daughter Carol Lee prompted Stoney to accept employment with a beverage distributor. Early-1940s radio broadcasts frequently featured the couple across Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, and North Carolina. After relocating to Chicago, Stoney took a defense-plant position in Gary, IN.
Their professional ascent commenced upon return to West Virginia in 1947 and induction into The Wheeling Jamboree. For ten years they performed weekly Saturday nights on the CBS radio network. The year 1957 brought departure from the program, relocation to Nashville, and membership in the Grand Ole Opry. Two years afterward they issued "Come Walk with Me," the first of three Top Ten country singles. "There's a Big Wheel" and "Big Midnight Special" followed in the same year. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s the Coopers guested on multiple U.S. and Canadian television programs and appeared in the films Country Music on Broadway and W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings. They maintained Grand Ole Opry activity into the mid-1970s, when Stoney's declining health compelled retirement. Their final joint session produced Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper Sing the Carter Family's Greatest Hits.
Wilma Lee sustained an independent performing and recording career after Stoney's withdrawal; she had earlier earned a bachelor's degree in banking from Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV. Days before his 1977 passing she offered a Grand Ole Opry rendition of the Carter Family's "Little Darling Pal of Mine" in his honor. The Smithsonian Institute recognized her as "the first lady of bluegrass" during its 1974 folk festival. A stroke suffered onstage at the Grand Ole Opry in 2001 concluded her performing tenure, though she later returned as a non-performer to greet and thank audiences. Several Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper recordings, among them "Sunny Side of the Mountain," "The West Virginia Polka," "Thirty Pieces of Silver," "Wreck on the Highway," and "Legend of the Dogwood Tree," remain fixtures in country and bluegrass repertoires.
Albums
